The VAR Guy

Novell’s board has considered and rejected an unsolicited $2 billion takeover bid from Elliott Associates, a hedge fund that wants to swallow SUSE Linux and Novell’s other core products. Novell’s rejection of the bid, announced March 20, answers some questions but raises others on the eve of BrainShare, the company’s big customer and partner event in Salt Lake City, Utah. Now the twist: Novell’s board essentially wrote an open letter to other potential suitors. Here’s the analysis from The VAR Guy.

The VAR Guy had a bit of an attitude this week. Spam. Meetings. Bad fast food. Hmmm… the distractions, the phone calls and the heart burn never seemed to stop. Alas, here are six channel party blog entries that The VAR Guy was too busy — or too lazy — to write for the week ending March 19, 2010.

The Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) battle is getting aggressive. The latest move involves Microsoft and Citrix ganging up against VMware, hoping to switch VMware customers over to VDI solutions that leverage Microsoft and Citrix virtualization technologies. Microsoft is also changing its Windows licensing model to potentially speed VDI deployments. Here’s the scoop.

Cloud integrators. Those two words describe an emerging group of VARs, solutions providers and MSPs that piece together and manage multiple cloud solutions for customers. But is the cloud integrator term pure hype — or here to stay? Hmmm… Before you answer that question, consider an important lesson involving so-called Web integrators from the dot-com error, um, era.

Canonical’s effort to diversify beyond Ubuntu Linux continue to accelerate. Even as the company preps Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) for April 2010 launch, Canonical is also promoting Landscape — a remote management tool — to resellers and end-customers. And there’s even a cloud management twist. Here’s the scoop.

Ouch. Painful headline. But The VAR Guy is growing tired of social media “experts” trying to make a buck off of small businesses that are desperate to bolster their online identities. So, how can you tell a true social media expert from a pretender? Here are seven clues.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, VARStreet was an aging portal — in some ways, a remnant of the dot-com boom and bust — designed to help VARs source products from distributors. Today, the VARStreet website has been completely overhauled, and VARStreet is striving to engage thousands of VARs and managed services providers. Who’s responsible for this overhaul? The answer: VARStreet’s new owner, Autotask. Here’s the story, and the implications for solutions providers.

Sure, hardware and software companies have built numerous portals for their channel partners. Some are big hits. Others are ugly misses. But here’s a twist: Laurus Technologies,  a Certified Dell Partner in Itasca, Ill., has built a rather intriguing portal that could bolster customer loyalty. Here are the details.

As the big Novell BrainShare conference gets set to start on March 21, Novell’s board of directors is considering an unsolicited offer for the company. But here’s the twist: More software developers seem to be flocking to Novell’s SUSE Linux platform — at a time when Novell’s ownership status could potentially change. Here’s why partners seem to be flocking to SUSE Linux.

For the second time in recent weeks, hosted unified communications is earning some headlines. But this time, the news involves an open source initiative between Open-Xchange (an open source email company) and 4PSA (a VoIP and cloud unified communications specialist). Here are the implications for VARs and managed services providers.

The Oracle vs. SAP battle has spilled over into social media, where the two software giants are taking decidedly different approaches to engaging channel partners. Here’s a look at each strategy and key milestones so far.

Red Hat grew up on Linux, but the company’s next generation of growth will involve JBoss middleware, cloud computing and virtualization. That’s the message Red Hat intends to deliver to European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) partners in May 2010.  And again to global partners in June 2010. Here are the details.

Microsoft shipped Exchange 2010 for on-premises customers in 2009. But if you check Microsoft’s SaaS platform — called Business Productivity Online Suite — you’ll notice that BPOS/Exchange Online still leverages Exchange 2007. The big questions: Why do Microsoft’s SaaS application releases lag their on-premises alternatives? And when can customers and partners expect BPOS/Exchange Online to run Exchange 2010? The VAR Guy found some potential answers. Here they are.

Alfresco Software, which specializes in open source enterprise content management, says it more than doubled its partner network in 2009. But here’s the really interesting part: Alfresco partners are earning $10 to $15 worth of services for every dollar of Alfresco Enterprise subscriptions sold. Here are the details.

Software as a service (SaaS) and cloud stocks continue to show some strength. For the week ending March 12, The VAR Guy’s SaaS 20 Stock Index — which tracks 20 SaaS and cloud stocks — rose 4.19%, and the index is now up a healthy 5.57% so far in 2010. Weekly winners included Kenexa Corp. (KNXA), Vocus Inc. (VOCS) and NetSuite (N). Here’s a closer look at the weekly leaders and laggards.

The VAR Guy has been drinking with two fists this week — Coca Cola in one hand, latte in the other. The steady diet of caffeine helped our resident blogger to drive plenty of web traffic. But The VAR Guy still couldn’t meet all of his deadlines. Here are six channel partner-related blog entries that The VAR Guy failed to write for the week ending March 12, 2010:

Elliott Associates, the hedge fund that’s seeking to acquire Novell and SUSE Linux, is denying a report that it plans to break up Novell and sell off the pieces. Hmmm… But The VAR Guy still wonders: Will Novell and Elliott Associates reach a buyout agreement in time for Novell BrainShare — a big customer and partner that starts March 21? Here’s some speculation.

All’s fair in love, war and the software market — where Microsoft is offering substantial dollars to U.S. customers that dump NetSuite for Microsoft Dynamics. The move comes only a few days after NetSuite started offering on-premises VARs (i.e., Microsoft’s partner base) new revenue incentives to promote NetSuite. Here’s a look at the ERP sparring match.

It’s been less than a month since VMware officially acquired Zimbra — the open source email platform — from Yahoo. But VMware isn’t standing still. Jim Morrisroe, VP and GM of VMware’s Zimbra division, says the company is preparing software appliances that combine virtualization with Zimbra. They should arrive by Q2 2010. Plus, VMware’s channel will soon promote Zimbra offerings. But that’s not all…

The VAR Guy suspects most CA employees — and most VARs — had never heard of Nimsoft before today. But CA’s $350 million buyout of Nimsoft represents a dramatic wake-up call for channel partners and big software companies (um, did somebody say Microsoft?) across the globe. Here’s why.

When CA acquired Nimsoft today for $350 million, it set the stage for some sweeping changes in the managed services market. But this is more than a technology story, folks. CA also gains a colorful executive — Nimsoft CEO Gary Read (pictured) — and a Nimsoft management team that thrives on social media and disrupting competitors. Here’s the scoop, as only The VAR Guy can spin it.

Microsoft Channel Chief Allison Watson, in a FastChat Video with The VAR Guy, explains how VARs and managed services providers can potentially profit from Microsoft’s cloud offerings. But that’s not all…

Red Hat already focuses on Linux, JBoss middleware and virtualization. But there are multiple signs the open source company will make a business intelligence move soon. And Red Hat’s move could involve either Jaspersoft or EnterpriseDB — or both. Here’s some analysis, some speculation and some potential implications for Red Hat’s channel partners.